I think Time Warner will get rid of its magazine business after it spins off AOL.

We wish News Corp. would dispose of its newspapers or separate them out.

I don't think it's going to happen, but that's a transaction we'd love to see.

THR: Which parts of the media businesses look solid to you?

Greenfield:Cable networks.

If you own your content and have the ability to exploit it across platforms and globally, that's going to put you in a superior position in the long-term --

even though most of the new platforms don't generate significant dollars today.

You have multiple revenue streams, and it's hard to see a substantial shift in the traditional multichannel world.

THR: So, you expect to see a continued shift from broadcast to cable TV viewership?

Greenfield: Broadcast TV networks are spending less and less on programming.

There's a clear shift to spending less between reality programming and Jay Leno coming on five nights a week.

That plays very well into driving viewership over the next several years to cable.

So I just think the overall cable network story, at least for the next few years, is going to get brighter.

THR: Any prediction for any major deal that could happen this year or early next year?

Greenfield: DirecTV is an asset that over the next 12 months could absolutely be acquired.

I think it will be essentially up for sale after the Liberty Media transaction that consolidates DirecTV into one company.

The obvious buyers are Verizon and AT&T, but given the strength of DirecTV's business and the strength of its cash flow, the net could be far wider.

I'll leave the rest to you.

Top concerts reselling at bargain prices

Volume of secondary ticket sales up 50% since 2008

By Sue Zeidler, Reuters

July 30, 2009, 05:16 PM ET

Paul McCartney (above,Getty)

Unemployment is up and consumer confidence is down, but one silver lining of the recession is that last-minute tickets to hear big acts like Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen are as little as $1.

According to eBay Inc's StubHub, the leading Internet ticket re-seller, last-minute concert ticket sales at sharply lower prices are on the rise for acts like Paul McCartney, Springsteen, Jonas Brothers, Coldplay, and U2.

"People often assume a secondary ticket site only offers inflated prices, but it's very challenging right now," said Sean Pate, a spokesman for San Francisco-based StubHub.

He said cheap prices were not showing up just for "nosebleed" seats or lawn seats, but rather in all seat locations for top performers.

"This trend of lower resale ticket pricing is very variable.

It's almost like a stock market and a barometer for pricing city by city," he said.

He said fans have already purchased tickets as low as $1 for Springsteen and Coldplay, $9 for Kenny Chesney and $10 for the Jonas Brothers this season, with tickets listing for as low as $16 for upcoming McCartney shows this weekend in Maryland.

According to Pollstar, a concert industry trade magazine, the concert industry in North America is off to another record year, with the top 100 tours grossing a combined $1.6 billion for the first half of 2009, up $113.5 million or 10.8 percent over the same period in the first six months of 2008.

Indeed, the nation's leading concert promoter, Live Nation Inc, said recently that U.S. concert ticket sales this summer were surprisingly strong despite a weaker economy.

And Pollstar said the average ticket price hit $64.61 for the top 100 acts, up 4 percent or $2.54 per ticket.

But Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said prices will likely be moderated in the second half due to heavy discounts on general admission amphitheater lawn seats.

Live Nation has said sales were holding very strong, helped by discounts like fee waivers it introduced as a recession-year break for customers.

Many of the big tours are reportedly sold out through vendors like Live Nation, but anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of those tickets may find their way onto the secondary market on sites like StubHub or craigslist.org, being sold by a combination of ticket brokers and ordinary fans.

In some of these cases, given the economy, the tickets are not re-selling for their face value and are therefore selling for substantial bargain prices on the secondary market, Pate said.

While average concert ticket prices on StubHub have fallen 12 percent since 2008, Pate said overall volume was up more than 50 percent and thousands of tickets for shows like the McCartney concerts have also commanded significant premiums.

Typically, sellers pay 15 percent of any completed transaction through StubHub, which also collects another 10 percent fee on transactions.

Pate said for the entirety of his tour, McCartney seats have averaged $242, with the range for the Maryland show swinging from as low as $16 to as high as $1,053 a seat.

Similarly, veteran performers like the Eagles, Elton John with Billy Joel and Eric Clapton have all fetched an average ticket price of more than $200 to date this year, he said.

About Me

We believe that the Time is NOW for music talents from our part of the world to be Global Icons, with name/ face recognition; i.e. Celebrity Status and with the utmost in financial growth...and thus our current project, Hollywood's TheArtiste...
Good Content is KING...not just any Content...and bringing attention to that Content and finding distribution is another story altogether....like what Hollywood Studios do, they create the best Content and control the entire downstream commerce...
Our vision & mission at Covenant Artists Management is to create Content with potential for Global Distribution.
One of our concurrent projects is to produce a 13 part Documentary featuring Music Producers of the World;
...featuring QUINCY JONES, undisputedly the GREATEST MUSIC producer of ALL time; George Martin, Roslan Aziz, Trevor Horn, Phil Spector, Hugh Padgham, Stevie Wonder ,Dr.Dre, Pharrel, Prince, and so many more...
About 80 % of recorded music released are Producer driven.
The whole Entertainment industry is either based on a story or a song...
It is going to be educational,entertaining & timeless
DV ( Deo Volente )